The National - PAPUA New Guinea is one of the least insured countries in the world, Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) Deputy Governor Benny Popoitai says.

He said only about 5 per cent of the country’s population was insured.

“PNG is one of the least insured in the world. About two-to-five per cent of our business and population is insured.

“It’s (PNG) the lowest in the Pacific – we’re supposed to be leading the Pacific, but in insurance wise, we are not,” Popoitai said.

Life Insurance Corporation (PNG) Ltd general manager Raka Taviri said insurance was not a foreign concept to PNG.

“Insurance is a normal concept for us in this country. When someone dies, there’s contribution from everybody else who pay for funeral expenses.

“Here we modernise it into an insurance policy where we are actually filling in an application form. “For instance, bride price payment, a young person cannot afford a bride price of K50,000 or K100,000, its contributions from others that make up that amount. Insurance works like that.

“Maybe the way we do it is really new, like they have to fill in forms … people shy away from filling forms; they don’t want to commit themselves,” Taviri said.

He said it may not be lack of knowledge by people which resulted in very less percentage of population being insured.

Earlier, another local insurer the second biggest by premium, Pacific Assurance Group (PAG) told The National most public servants in the country were not insured.

Founder and director Johnson Tia had said the Pacific Assurance Group hoped to partner with the Government to provide insurance cover for public officers in areas such as medical, life and infrastructure, among others.